The Unz Review

Razib Khan • November 30, 2011 • 2 Comments

I went to a seminar where a Pacific Biosciences representative was presenting recently. Along with others I arrived early because we thought it would be rather crowded. Not so much. Has the bubble burst? Zoom in to the last year....

ihateaphids says:

December 1, 2011 at 2:47 am GMT

what about roche 454?

When Did Population Genetics Emerge?

Razib Khan • October 6, 2011 • 9 Comments

I recently heard an eminent geneticist declare that population genetics began with Theodosius Dobzhansky's Genetics and the Origin of Species in 1937. My immediate reflex was to be skeptical of this, at least going by Will Provine's treatment in The Origins of Theoretical Population Genetics, which seemed to push back the timing to the 1920s....

ihateaphids says:

October 7, 2011 at 1:12 am GMT

I agree, Provine’s book clearly suggests the wheels were in motion earlier. Yes, perhaps the phrase did not become popular until the 30-40’s, but the field itself was in development by the first two decades

The Geography of Genes Tells Us Only So Much About History

Razib Khan • August 24, 2011 • 3 Comments

L. L. Cavalli-Sforza's The History and Geography of Human Genes is a book I reference a great deal. Cavalli-Sforza is the godfather of the field of historical population genetics, the phylogeography of humankind. Though his work was on classical autosomal markers, the huge literature which drew inferences from Y chromosomal and mtDNA variation followed in...

ihateaphids says:

August 26, 2011 at 2:29 pm GMT

Razib, when you say “never trust estimates of coalescence between two lineages” are you referring to the specific timing (in years or whatever) of coalescence?

Evolution's Gears Don't Reverse Easily

Razib Khan • May 12, 2011 • 13 Comments

Evolutionary Adaptations Can Be Reversed, but Rarely: Here are the primary results: The paper is not online yet. I'll definitely check it out when it comes out, at least if the math isn't too difficult. The reason is that these sorts of models always rely on simplifying assumptions, and they may not have insights which...

ihateaphids says:

May 12, 2011 at 12:22 pm GMT

well, there’s DDT resistance in mosquitos…that reversed following cessation of pesticide application. Although I’m not sure how many mut’s are involved in any given case of resistance…there are several possible, but not sure how many tend to all occur at the same time in a given population/individual.

Osama Bin Laden and the DNA Match

Razib Khan • May 2, 2011 • 23 Comments

How they determine Osama bin Laden really is Osama bin Laden: I checked and it seems that there are paternity testing outfits that offer one day turnaround. So I guess it's not implausible that they could have pulled this off. I assume they still use variable number tandem repeats for DNA profiling? Update: Yeah, short...

ihateaphids says:

May 3, 2011 at 1:39 am GMT

If they use STRs (available in standardized kits for forensics) the whole process could be ~4 hours in a dedicated situation (I imagine OBL generates greater dedication than your typical knife wielding maniac)…turnarounds are slow because of volume, not length of lab time per sample

Who Thinks the Sun Goes Around the Earth?

Razib Khan • March 28, 2011 • 25 Comments

My post earlier today prompted a few emails about the bizarre result that a substantial minority of Americans accept that the sun goes around the earth. The General Social Science variable is EARTHSUN, and it asks: The answers are "Earth around the Sun," "Sun around the Earth," and "Don't Know." A substantial minority of Americans...

ihateaphids says:

March 29, 2011 at 12:06 am GMT • 100 Words

Even if this is the case, I’m worried that there are 8ish% of graduate degree people who can’t answer a survey, but the alternative is even more frightening, so I have to agree with you. I mean I know >8% of scientists think the world revolved around THEMSELVES, but… 🙂